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New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey appeared to break out of his slump Monday, as he threw a gem to defeat the Chicago White Sox 1-0.  

Harvey, who entered the afternoon at 3-7 in 10 starts with a dreadful 6.08 ERA, tossed seven innings of shutout ball while allowing just two hits. The victory pushed the Mets to 29-21, which is a half-game back of the National League East-leading Washington Nationals.

New York’s Twitter account highlighted Harvey’s strikeouts: 

CBS Sports’ Jonah Keri praised the beleaguered veteran:

The New York Post‘s Mike Puma noted that this was the first time Harvey made it past the sixth inning this season:

He also showed flashes of his old velocity, per ESPN’s Adam Rubin:

The game was scoreless until Neil Walker blasted a solo home run to left center field in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The White Sox have now lost seven straight.

Coming into the game, Harvey’s struggles were the major focus. After the 27-year-old’s rough outing against the Nationals on May 24, Newsday‘s David Lennon suggested the team should give him some time off to rediscover his game.

“Since the Mets still are trying to come up with a concrete plan for how to fix Matt Harvey, maybe a good start Wednesday would have been to hand him a notebook and pen,” Lennon wrote. “That way, as Steven Matz took apart the Nationals with surgical precision, Harvey might learn something from his seat in the dugout.“

However, Mets manager Terry Collins has stood by Harvey throughout this season and trusted his All-Star starter to break out sooner rather than later, per NJ.com’s Joe Giglio:

I believe as we continue, Matt’s going to get better. I think he’s going to bounce back,” Collins said. “A year ago, we were concerned that his velocity wasn’t there, his slider wasn’t there. Then by mid-summer he was back. I expect the same thing to happen again this year. I think in a few weeks we’ll look up and Matt Harvey will be back.

If Monday was any indication, Collins may be right. Harvey had full command once more and looked like a legitimate star.

New York already has aces in Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, so pitching depth isn’t a concern. Despite Harvey’s slump, the club is still third in the MLB in team ERA. If Harvey can get going, the Mets will challenge the Chicago Cubs‘ claim to having the strongest pitching staff in baseball.

Postgame Reaction

Collins reaffirmed his belief in Harvey following his team’s win, courtesy of New York’s Twitter account:

He went on to say that Harvey’s performance is promising for the Mets moving forward, according to ESPN.com’s Danny Knobler.

I think today is a first big step, Collins said. He feels good about the way it went. He feels good about the way he threw the ball. Now we’ve just got to build on it, and stay as positive as we can and have him repeat it. No matter what the results are, if he repeats this kind of performance with stuff, I think we’re on the right track.

Harvey appeared satisfied that the work he put in to reverse his struggles yielded positive results, per the Mets:

SportsCenter noted that it has been a while since Harvey carried his team to such a close win.

His teammates hope that Harvey’s performance will instill some confidence back into the ace, per Newsday‘s Anthony Rieber.

“It helps when you go out there and throw seven scoreless,” David Wright said, per Rieber. “You get a little of that cockiness back. That’s what we’ve been accustomed to seeing and kind of spoiled us the last few years.”

When he has his best stuff, Harvey is nearly impossible to beat. Other top pitchers, such as the Boston Red Sox’s David Price, were able to turn their seasons around after slow starts, and Harvey has the ability to do the same. 

All statistics are courtesy of ESPN.com. 

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The New England Patriots will likely lose at least one prominent viewer should Tom Brady’s four-game Deflategate suspension remain in place. 

In an interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Andy Gray, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz spoke of his dissatisfaction with Deflategate:

I think it’s stupid, to be honest with you. Put it this way: You’re talking about the one player that everybody wants to watch play. We’re not just talking about any player. We’re talking about [Brady]. If I turn on the TV on Sunday to watch a Patriots game and I know that [Brady] is not playing, I would turn off the TV. I don’t want to watch that game.

Since he’s one of the most well-liked athletes in the United States, the Patriots should consider sending Ortiz as an emissary to the NFL’s league offices to try to get Brady’s suspension overturned. How could NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell possibly turn down a polite request from Big Papi?

Ortiz told Gray that even New York Yankees fans have warmed to him over the years:

You know how it is when you play for the Red Sox. It doesn’t matter how much things have cooled off. If you don’t play for the Yankees, you don’t matter. But I have been lucky somehow, someway with the Yankees fan. Whenever I’m in New York and I decide to go to public places, they are all cool with me. They can’t wait for me to retire, obviously.

In the interview, Ortiz added that the altercation between Pedro Martinez and Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer in the 2003 American League Championship Series was the craziest thing he had seen on the diamond over his two decades in MLB.

Both benches emptied in Game 3 of the series. During the fracas, Zimmer confronted Martinez, who threw him to the ground:

Ortiz announced last November that he intends to retire following the 2016 season, and he’s picking a great time to walk away from the game. The nine-time All-Star is batting .339 with 13 home runs and an MLB-best 46 RBI and .720 slugging percentage.

Big Papi is a major reason why the Red Sox lead the American League East with a 31-20 record. According to Baseball Prospectus, Boston’s 9.7 percent odds of winning the World Series are second in the AL to the Cleveland Indians (12.4 percent).

Leading the Sox on one more deep postseason run would be a great way for Ortiz to close out an impressive career.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

As we honor the men and women who have given their lives for the United States this Memorial Day, the 2016 MLB season continues chugging along.

The Chicago Cubs appeared to be in danger of losing their stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in our MLB power rankings with a 4-7 stretch of games heading into last week, but they got back on track with a big series win against the rival St. Louis Cardinals.

The rest of the top 10 remains in flux, though.

The San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Dodgers all received a nice bump after strong weeks, while the Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies are heading in the other direction.

There was also significant movement in the bottom half of the rankings, with the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers making noise.

One thing remains true: These rankings are a fluid process, with teams moving up or down based on where they ranked the previous week. If a club keeps winning, it will keep climbing—it’s as simple as that.

Here’s a look at where all 30 MLB teams stand.

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Nearly one-third into the 2016 MLB season, fantasy baseball players have received plenty of reminders of the game’s cruelty.

Far too often, players take extreme detours without rhyme or reason. Remember when Gio Gonzalez allowed four earned runs over his first five starts? He has coughed up 19 in his last five outings. Anyone who picked up Mat Latos on April 25, when he boasted a 0.74 ERA, has watched his ERA balloon to 4.06.

The Ringer founder Bill Simmons uncovered the truth to fantasy sports when he tweeted that they “only exist to make us feel bad about ourselves.” He’s right. Take it from someone who expected big things from Michael Pineda.

Most of the following highlighted players are riding high, and some of those successes will inevitably prove all smoke and mirrors. Some may stick, and there’s hopefully a middle ground where these hot hands normalize into serviceable fantasy options.

All available in more than half of Yahoo Sports leagues, adding these players could make fantasy gamers feel smart for a change.

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There were no beanballs, no ejections and no Chase Utley fireworks in Sunday night’s tussle between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

But there was Clayton Kershaw, and lately that means flat-out greatness.

Well, OK, not just lately. Kershaw has been great for years now to the point where it’s possible to take him for granted.

But over his past several starts, he’s elevated his game to yet another level and put himself on track to claim another National League Cy Young Award and, yep, MVP trophy.

The Mets were merely the latest unlucky victims.

For 7.2 innings, the Dodgers left-hander carved New York’s lineup into neat little pieces, striking out 10 with no walks and allowing two earned runs on four hits.

He surrendered a solo home run to Asdrubal Cabrera in the sixth. A second run was charged to his record when left-hander Adam Liberatore coughed up a Curtis Granderson RBI triple in the eighth, plating Kevin Plawecki, who had singled off Kershaw to lead off the inning.

The Dodgers, however, answered back with two runs in the top of the ninth on a bases-loaded Adrian Gonzalez single and went on to a 4-2 victory.

Kershaw didn’t get the win, but his record still sits at a perfect 5-0 for the month of May. During that span, he’s struck out 65 in 49.2 innings while surrendering two walks and five earned runs.

To say he’s a shoo-in for Pitcher of the Month honors is beyond an understatement. ESPN.com’s Doug Padilla was already asking if Kershaw had put together the best month ever before Sunday’s gem.

On Saturday, the story was Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard throwing a blazing fastball behind Utley in the third inning and getting tossed, then Utley launching a pair of home runs.

That, in turn, exhumed memories of Utley’s takeout slide in last year’s National League Division Series between New York and Los Angeles, which ended Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s season and ultimately led to an MLB rule change.

Any simmering ill will was pushed to the back burner as Kershaw took the hill opposite veteran Bartolo Colon, who yielded a pair of runs in six innings. Neither pitcher showed any hint of throwing at anyone. Cooler heads prevailed.

So did Kershaw and the Dodgers.

Eventually, he’s going to lose again. He’s not invincible, despite recent results to the contrary.

But on a flawed Los Angeles team that ranks in the bottom third in baseball in OPS and has question marks in the bullpen that bubbled up again Sunday, he’s been nothing short of a savior.

Even after taking two straight from the Mets, the Dodgers still trail the archrival San Francisco Giants by 4.5 games in the NL West. Where would they be without Kershaw?

The Chavez Ravine faithful are no doubt shuddering at the thought.

Which brings us back to talk of another MVP Award. Kershaw claimed the prize in 2014 when he posted a 1.77 ERA with 239 strikeouts in 198.1 innings.

This year, his ERA sits at 1.56, and he’s already compiled 105 strikeouts in 86.2 frames with just five walks, which inspired the following tongue-in-cheek response from former player and current ESPN analyst Doug Glanville:

Reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper is mired in a slump that has lowered his average to .245, though the 23-year-old is always a threat to go off.

Heck, with so much season left, there’s time for any number of top talents to vault into the MVP conversation.

Right now, Kershaw‘s chief competition for the award might be Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, who leads the Senior Circuit in home runs and slugging percentage.

On Sunday against Kershaw, Cespedes went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. It’s only one game, obviously, and Cespedes remains a force. But it felt like a message was delivered.

Again, this transcendence is nothing new for Kershaw, as MLB.com’s Michael Clair outlined:

Over the last three seasons, Kershaw has posted a 188 ERA+, a statistic that normalizes performance and compares it to the league average (which is 100). [Justin] Verlander’s best season: 172. [Tim] Lincecum’s: 171. [Felix] Hernandez: 174. That means Kershaw has been better, on average, over the past three years than any one of those guys was in his very best season.

We’re nearing the point when it will be time to talk about Kershaw not merely as one of the best pitchers of his generation but one of the best of all time. 

It will become even more unavoidable if Kershaw wins another MVP. Ten pitchers in MLB history, including Kershaw, have taken home an MVP and Cy Young in the same season. No one has done it twice.

“I wish we had 25 of him,” Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts said of his ace, per Padilla.

That’s understandable, especially given the Dodgers’ shortcomings. It’s also an impossibility.

Baseball is a game of surprise and uncertainty, but this much we know unequivocally: There’s only one Clayton Kershaw.

All statistics current as of May 30 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta suffered a thumb injury Saturday, which will delay his return from a previous torn ligament in another thumb.  

Continue for updates.

Peralta Out for ‘Three or Four Days’

Sunday, May 29

Mark Saxon of ESPN.com reported the shortstop “cut his right thumb while opening a box Saturday.” The shortstop is rehabbing from his previous thumb injury (different thumb) with Double-A Springfield and had to receive three stitches. Saxon noted he will not play for a few days, as “the Cardinals now have ruled out his returning to the majors as soon as Friday because he needs more minor league at-bats.”

It’s been a tough season for Peralta, 34, who missed much of the early portion of the season with a torn thumb ligament. He was expected to be an important contributor for the Cardinals after hitting .275 with 17 home runs and 75 RBI last season, but he hasn’t played for the major league team yet. 

With Peralta injured, Jedd Gyorko and Aledmys Diaz will likely continue to see playing time as they attempt to replicate Peralta’s production.

The loss hurts the Cardinals, however, as Peralta is a nice source of pop in their lineup alongside Matt Holliday and Matt Carpenter. The Cardinals came into the season weakened by the loss of Jason Heyward to free agency; losing Peralta for even more time only compounds that issue.

And it certainly hurts the Cardinals as the team makes its postseason push.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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New York Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltran recorded his 2,500th career hit during the fourth inning of Saturday’s eventual 9-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, thereby joining Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson and current teammate Alex Rodriguez as the only players in major league history with 2,500 hits, 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases, per Sportsnet Stats on Twitter.

Beltran’s milestone hit was a solo home run to left field off of Rays pitcher Matt Moore, cutting Tampa Bay’s early lead from 5-0 to 5-1. The Rays quickly put the game out of reach over the following two innings, extending the lead to 9-1 by the bottom of the fifth, which allowed Moore to pick up his second win of the year.

Beltran made outs in his other two plate appearances, and he was removed from the contest early due to tightness near his right scapula, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.

The 39-year-old Puerto Rican outfielder—who has 404 homers and 311 steals to go along with his 2,500 hits—was subsequently held out of the lineup for Sunday’s series finale, allowing 26-year-old Aaron Hicks to get the start in right field.

While his .263 batting average and .290 on-base percentage don’t impress, Beltran clearly still has plenty of pop left in his bat, boasting 12 home runs, 31 RBI and a .537 slugging percentage through 48 games, putting him on pace for 41 homers and 105 RBI.

Of course, given his age and injury history, Beltran probably won’t play enough games to have a real shot at reaching 40 homers for just the second time (2006) in his career.

Regardless, his longevity and five-tool skill set should help to make a strong case for the Hall of Fame whenever Beltran does decide to retire.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz was a late scratch prior to Sunday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays with a sore left foot. However, he has since returned to action.

Continue for updates.

Ortiz in Lineup vs. Orioles

Monday, May 30

Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe confirmed that Ortiz will be active against Baltimore on Monday. He will bat fourth and serve as the designated hitter.

Farrell Comments on Ortiz’s Injury

Sunday, May 29  

Manager John Farrell told reporters Ortiz “came to the stadium more sore than he was yesterday” and added that X-rays were negative.

Ortiz Removed from Lineup vs. Blue Jays

Sunday, May 29  

The Red Sox announced the change Sunday, noting Hanley Ramirez would take over as the designated hitter. Guerin Austin of NESN passed along word that Ortiz is considered day-to-day.

Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal noted Ortiz was hit in the foot with a pitch during the fifth inning of Saturday’s game, adding that it was “not entirely surprising he’s not able to go today.”

Ortiz Continues to Dominate Despite Age

Even though the slugger announced his intention to retire after the 2016 campaign during the offseason, he’s still a major power threat in the middle of the Red Sox lineup.

The 40-year-old veteran has remained relatively healthy despite getting toward the back end of his career. The only season in which he missed significant time over the previous six years was in 2012, when he suffered an Achilles injury. Playing DH helps limit his chances of getting hurt, of course.

If he’s forced to miss further action during the season, the Red Sox will probably use the opening to give their regular position players like Ramirez what amounts to a half-day off at DH. In turn, reserves like Josh Rutledge and Chris Young could draw some additional starts in the field.

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Aside from a few failed fireworks here and there, Memorial Day weekend tends to be devoid of duds.

It’s a time for family and friends to gather for the first official barbecues of the season, some frosty adult beverages and, of course, baseball. It is the unofficial start of the summer, and nothing says summer quite like a ballgame.

Not all of the players who take the field share our enthusiasm, however, as some are mired in month-long funks. Taking traditional and advanced statistics into consideration, here’s a look at those who can’t wait until the official start of summer arrives, perhaps resulting in a bat that finally begins to heat up.

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New York Mets third baseman David Wright is suffering from a herniated disk in his neck, which could force him onto the disabled list. He hasn’t played since May 27, and it is uncertain when he will be ready to return to the lineup.  

Continue for updates. 

Wright Out vs. White Sox

Wednesday, June 1

The Mets announced that Wright will not play against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.

Wright Undergoes Injection

Tuesday, May 31

Adam Rubin of ESPN reported that Wright received an injection, but he noted that it takes 48 hours to take effect, “so it looks like Wright is active but unavailable for this series.”

Wright Comments on Injury

Monday, May 30

Wright told reporters he’s been diagnosed with a herniated disk in his neck, adding that he’s “not sure” if it’s related to his spinal stenosis. The third baseman also said he will see a doctor on Tuesday.

Collins Comments on Wright’s Status

Monday, May 30

“Yes, I’m concerned about [Wright] possibly [going on the disabled list],” manager Terry Collins said Monday morning, per Danny Knobler for ESPN.com. “The condition he’s been playing in and the condition he’s in right now, yeah, I’m concerned about it. I know this guy plays with a lot of discomfort. He always has. When he can’t play, he’s hurt. So yeah, I’m concerned about it.”

Mets GM Comments on Wright’s Status

Sunday, May 29

“We’ll just have to see what happens over the next 24 hours,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said Saturday, per Rubin. “It’s bothering him. I don’t want to get into it at this point, until we have more concrete information.” 

Wright Struggling to Shake Injury Bug

Wright’s back flared up on him on May 17, but the seemingly minor injury was a cause for concern after he was diagnosed last summer with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column. 

Through 37 appearances this season, the veteran hot corner patrolman is batting .226 with seven home runs, 14 RBI and a .350 on-base percentage. 

The 33-year-old is a far cry from the player who nabbed seven All-Star appearances between 2006 and 2013, but he’s still the heart and soul of the defending National League champions. 

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